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Did the Treaty of Versailles Make World War Ii Inevitable?

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Did the Treaty of Versailles make
World War II inevitable?

JANUARY 8, 2008
STUDENT ID: 081404078

ABSTRACT

This essay analyses the origins of the Second World War by briefly summarizing the events from 1919-1939. However, most emphasis is put on the amount of responsibility the Treaty of Versailles deserves for the outbreak of war. Other than analysing the Treaty of Versailles on its own, it also analyses the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash on the world, the rise of Fascism and Nazism, as well as the rise of Adolf Hitler, the failure of the League of Nations and the appeasement of the Fascist and Nazi regimes by Britain and France throughout the 1930s. Hence the Treaty of Versailles plays a …show more content…

The Treaty of Versailles had prohibited Anschluss with Austria and excluded 750,000 Germans from Germany. There was a large German community in Austria as well as the area of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia and the Polish Corridor. Hitler had promised the German people to incorporate all the Germans into the Third Reich and according to Churchill, Hitler “made it clear that the path to power lay through aggression and violence” (Churchill, 1948, pg.43). He promised the Germans that he would do anything necessary to achieve his goal.

In addition, Hitler learnt that the League of Nations, itself a creation of the Treaty of Versailles failed to ensure collective security, and could possibly do nothing to impede his actions. The most crucial factor is that Woodrow Wilson himself, the creator of the League of Nations, was not allowed to join it by the Congress. Also, it proved to be ineffective at various occasions. It was first unsuccessful in 1931 during the Manchurian Crisis. The League of Nations sent a committee to investigate the situation and concluded that Japan had violated China’s security. Although they condemned Japan’s actions, there was not much Britain or

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